The present invention relates to needlework methods and, more particularly, to novel methods of hand-forming needlework patterns in a specific type of woven base fabric.
Hand-produced needlework items wherein a pattern or design is produced on a base fabric by one or more threads drawn by a needle through a base fabric have been popular for centuries. Although the vast majority of such items are now mass produced by automated machinery, there is still a demand for handmade needlework items on a commercial scale, as well as for new designs and techniques which may be practised by amateurs as hobbies and crafts. Some of the most popular needleworking techniques in present use, although they have been well known for a great many years, are needlepoint, crewel embroidery, and counted cross-stitch.
Among the many types of woven fabrics which are commerically available are those including what are known as floating threads, or simply "floats." These are threads which pass over and under entire groups of orthogonal threads without being woven in tightly engaged relation therewith. The floats are interspersed with more tightly woven threads extending in the same direction, and are often employed in pairs, known in weaving as "double floats." A commercially available type of such fabric is commonly known as aida cloth, and is characterized by having both warp and weft threads arranged in spaced groups; double floats in each group pass over and under successive groups of orthogonal threads without being interwoven with the individual threads thereof.